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Rights Statements InC/1.0 , Open Access
Journal article
Coyote (Canis latrans) habitat selection in urban areas of Western Washington via analysis of routine movements
Northwest science., Vol.71(4), pp.289-297
1997
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/1233
Abstract
Habitat preference is often determined by examining temporally independent animal location data with little attention paid to movement behavior. In 1989-90, I examined coyote habitat preference in urban areas of Washington State by examining habitat used by 6 radio-collared coyotes during routine movements. I represented routine movements as straight lines connecting consecutive radio-relocations taken at 1-hour intervals during a series of 6-hour tracking sessions. I used compositional analysis to determine if coyotes selected for particular habitat types at 2 spatial scales: i) home range from within an arbitrarily defined study area containing all home ranges and ii) areas used during routine movements from within the home range. There was no difference (P = 0.631) in habitat composition between the time ranges and the study area. However, based on habitat availability in home ranges, coyotes preferred (P < 0.036) Forest = Shrub > Densely mixed vegetation > Moderately mixed vegetation > Sparsely mixed vegetation during routine movements. I used stepwise multiple regression to explore the relationship between movement distance and quality of habitat in which the movement began (initial habitat), habitat in which the movement ended (final habitat), habitat gradient (initial-final habitat), and light conditions (night vs. day). Light conditions (P = 0.006) and the interaction of light and initial habitat (P = 0.004) were significant but weak predictors (multiple R2 =0.137) of movement distance. Coyotes moved longer distances at night than during the day. Movement distance tended to increase with decreasing habitat quality at night but showed little relationship with habitat quality during the day. Coyotes preferred to travel through, and remain in close proximity to, relatively undisturbed (Forest and Shrub) habitats in urban environments of Washington State
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Details
- Title
- Coyote (Canis latrans) habitat selection in urban areas of Western Washington via analysis of routine movements
- Creators
- Timothy Quinn (Author)
- Publication Details
- Northwest science., Vol.71(4), pp.289-297
- Academic Unit
- Northwest Science
- Publisher
- WSU Press
- Identifiers
- 99900502043901842
- Copyright
- In copyright ; openAccess ; http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ ; http://purl.org/eprint/accessRights/OpenAccess
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Journal article